System for locating the position of the end of the boom, the mouth of the refuelling vessel and the tanker

Abstract

A system for locating the end of a boom and that of a refueling vessel in a mid-flight refueling operation from a tanker that includes means for locating the position of the inlet mouth of the fuel that is inside the vessel of the receiving plane that comprise at least one vision subsystem arranged on the tanker. Also included are means for locating the position of the boom tip comprising light emitters, placed on the boom tip, along with the vision subsystem arranged on the tanker, and processing means constructed to use the images obtained from the locating means to allow their positions and inclinations to be exactly determined with respect to a common coordinate system.

What is claimed: 
     
       1. A system of locating a boom ( 15 ) tip and a receiving vessel during a mid-flight refueling operation that conveys fuel from a tanker to a receiving plane, comprising:
 a tanker ( 40 ) equipped with the boom ( 15 ) that includes a boom tip; 
 the receiving vessel with a vessel device ( 5 ) and fuel inlet mouth, the receiving vessel being attachable to a receiving plane, the vessel device being made from a material chosen from the group consisting of steel, titanium, Teflon® or Kevlar®, and the vessel device being constructed with a semi-hollow band that includes at least four transparent zones made from a material chosen from the group consisting of graphene or aluminum oxide, and each zone having a light-emitting element embedded therein; 
 means for locating a position of the fuel inlet mouth that includes plural light emitters; at least one vision subsystem arranged on the tanker, and including at least two cameras ( 26 ); 
 means for locating a position of the boom tip, including plural light emitters placed on the boom tip, and constructed to operate in cooperation with the vision subsystem; and 
 processing means configured to determine, through images obtained from the means for locating the position of the fuel inlet mouth and the means for locating the position of the boom tip, to determine the positions of the fuel inlet mouth and the boom tip with respect to a common coordinate system. 
 
     
     
       2. The system according to  claim 1 , wherein a sensor that receives and detects light from another device is contained in one of the transparent zones. 
     
     
       3. The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the means for locating the position of the fuel inlet mouth includes a Time of Flight camera ( 42 ) located in the tanker ( 40 ), and constructed with lighting means and a sensor that measures the time it takes for an emitted light takes to return from the receiving vessel, the means for locating the position of the fuel inlet mouth further including a processing system constructed to determine the position of the fuel inlet mouth by recognizing the position of the receiving vessel or by making a comparison of measurements from the Time of Flight camera and a 3D model of the receiving vessel. 
     
     
       4. The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the means for locating the position of the fuel inlet mouth includes a laser emitter ( 43 ) placed on the tanker ( 40 ) and including a lens chosen from the group consisting of a diffractive optical elements lens and a diffraction lens that generates a known pattern of light, located on the surface of the receiving plane, and further comprising a processing system which is configured for determining the correspondence between points of a matrix and the same points in an image obtained by the cameras by means of telemetry to obtain distances from the receiving plane and, using the distances, for performing an image recognition or a comparison of the points in the image obtained by the cameras and a 3D model of the receiving plane to obtain information corresponding to the location of the fuel inlet mouth. 
     
     
       5. The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the means for locating ( 41 ) the position of the boom tip includes a boom device with a box that is attached to the boom ( 15 ) or to an extendable bar ( 13 ) of the boom, the box containing at least three light emitters, each emitting a narrow range of wavelengths, each including a diffuser ( 23 ), and each powered by respective drivers ( 37 ) that are connected to a power source through a control electronics unit and wherein the boom device is controlled remotely and constructed to generate light patterns from a frame frequency of the cameras. 
     
     
       6. The system according to  claim 5 , wherein the light emitter of the boom ( 15 ) device and vessel device ( 5 ) are capable of emitting light and the at least two cameras ( 26 ) of the vision subsystem are constructed to be sensitive to the wavelength emitted by the boom ( 15 ) device and vessel device ( 5 ), the at least two cameras ( 26 ) are located in a rigid support to fix a location for the at least two cameras, the at least two cameras each include an optical band pass filter, a focus lens located behind the filter and electronics for processing and extracting both the image and information relative to the coordinates (x, y) of each point of light emitted by each light emitter of the boom ( 15 ) device and vessel device ( 5 ). 
     
     
       7. The system according to  claim 1  wherein the light emitters ( 2 ) are the terminal ends of an optical fiber that transports light from the emitters. 
     
     
       8. The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the vision subsystem has controllable and variable focusing cameras. 
     
     
       9. The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the vision subsystem includes controllable and variable Iris cameras. 
     
     
       10. The system according to  claim 1 , wherein at least the vision subsystem includes controllable and variable zoom cameras. 
     
     
       11. The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the means for locating the position of the boom tip is integrated into the boom ( 15 ). 
     
     
       12. The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the means for location the position of the fuel inlet mouth is integrated into the receiving vessel. 
     
     
       13. A system of locating a boom ( 15 ) tip and a receiving vessel during a mid-flight refueling operation that conveys fuel from a tanker to a receiving plane, comprising:
 a tanker ( 40 ) equipped with a boom ( 15 ) having a boom tip; 
 a receiving vessel ( 9 ) attachable to a receiving plane and having a fuel inlet mouth ( 8 ) for receiving fuel located inside the receiving vessel; 
 three locating devices ( 41 ), a first one being located on the receiving vessel, a second one being located under the tanker and a third one being located on the boom tip, wherein each locating device ( 41 ) is constructed with: 
 at least three light emitters ( 38 ), each having a diffuser and a driver ( 37 ) for powering the driver; 
 a microcontroller ( 36 ) for the at least three light emitters; 
 at least two high-speed vision cameras ( 26 ), each having a frame rate greater than 30 fps) and each having a respective lens ( 25 ) and a narrow bandpass optical filter ( 24 ) tuned to light that is emitted by another locating device, and each of the cameras including high-speed, field-programmable gate arrays to determine in real time the coordinates of the points of light emitted by the other locating device; and 
 a light sensor ( 35 ) having a lens and being capable of detecting light from another locating device ( 41 ) when the other locating device ( 41 ) is nearby; 
 electronic equipment ( 33 , 36 , 39 ) including a communication bus, the electronic equipment being constructed to process and save coordinates provided by the at least two cameras to obtain the relative coordinates of each emitter with respect to one of the cameras. 
 
     
     
       14. A system of refueling a receiving plane from a tanker, where the receiving plane includes a receiving vessel, plural cameras that each include optical filters and an image processor, and light emitters, and the tanker ( 40 ) includes a boom ( 15 ) and boom tip with plural light emitters, comprising: visualizing the tanker from the receiving vessel using the cameras to detect patterns of light emitted by the light emitters that follow the frame frequency of the cameras; determining a position of the tanker ( 40 ) from the visualizing step; and positioning the receiving plane adjacent the tanker ( 40 ) by the visualizing and determining, thereby to allow the refueling. 
     
     
       15. The system of  claim 14 , wherein the boom includes a boom tip with associated high-speed video cameras that operate at a frame frequency and constructed to sense, record and encode ambient sound, and the visualizing and determining steps further comprise the steps of:
 making and recording a video with the high-speed video cameras that includes successive frames showing corresponding images; 
 blinking the light emitters to produce light patterns with a predetermined cadence by following two modes of operation; the first mode operating at a frequency that corresponds to the frame frequency of the cameras and the second mode operating at a frequency of 48 KHz; 
 determining a position of the fuel inlet mouth with respect to the tanker by: 
 eliminating from the video all frame images that are not related to the light emitters; 
 subtracting successive frames of the video by an image processor to obtain differences between corresponding images of successive frames; 
 determining which light patterns are relevant by correlating differences between a pattern code associated with the blinking of the light emitters; and 
 calculating coordinates of the light emitters using information detected by the cameras through simple mathematics that allow it to be included in electronics and recalculated in real time; 
 simultaneously repeating the blinking for the light emitters on the boom tip to produce light patterns that correspond to the position of the receiving plane and to human voice information; 
 determining the position of the light emitters on the boom tip using a tanker coordinate system; 
 determining the position of the boom tip with respect to the tanker; and 
 determining the relative positions of, and vectors orthogonal to the surfaces of, the boom tip and the fuel inlet mouth. 
 
     
     
       16. The system of  claim 15 , wherein the eliminating includes using optical filters.